Announcing End of Support of pre-5.0 Versions

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Please read this blog post containing important information about the upcoming end of support of all Kentico CMS versions prior to Version 5.0.

Update: We're very sorry if you received an e-mail showing incorrect information about your projects running pre-5.0 version. We've already sent a corrected e-mail to those who are affected by the end of support.

Providing outstanding support has always been an important part of Kentico CMS. In order to provide a consistent customer strategy, Kentico CMS is implementing a Support Lifecycle Policy. This provides a consistent and predictable guideline for support availability when a new Kentico product releases and throughout that product’s life. Our goal is to allow customers to better maximize their investment and strategically plan for a successful future.

  • Effective March 1, 2013 all support for any Kentico CMS version prior to Kentico CMS 5 is ended.
  • Beginning with the release of Kentico CMS 8, support is available for the latest major version and previous two major versions only.

Below, please find FAQ for end of the support:

Q: What happens on March 1, 2013?
A: Effective March 1, 2013, any customer using a version of Kentico CMS prior to 5.0 will not be able to receive any technical support for their installations, even if they have a valid maintenance.

Q: Who is affected?
A: Version 5.0 was released on December 23rd, 2009, so all pre-5.0 installations are now more than 3 years old. Based on our statistics, the majority of customers are currently running version 5.0 or later, so this step won't affect a large number of clients.

Q: Why is Kentico ending support?
A: Supporting older versions tends to be much more difficult the older the version is. It has a major impact on our ability to answer the questions in a timely manner. In many cases, we may not be able to recommend customers anything better than upgrading to a newer version to fix a bug or solve a browser compatibility issue. We also want to encourage our clients to keep using the latest versions of Kentico CMS and benefit from all enhancements we introduced in the newer versions.

Q: What should I do if I currently run a Kentico CMS 4.x or Older Version?
A: It’s recommended that you upgrade your installation to the latest version. There are several good reasons to do that:

  • Get the new features introduced in the later versions
  • Benefit from the latest performance, stability and security enhancements
  • Keep up with latest technology enhancements including latest versions of browsers, operating systems, Visual Studio, .NET Framework or Microsoft SQL Server
  • Be eligible for our unique 7-Day Bug Fixing Policy that applies only to the latest version (we don’t fix bugs in older versions)

Q: What Is Kentico Policy for Supporting the Newer Versions?
A: In the future, we will keep supporting the latest major version and previous two major versions and we will end support for any older versions with release of a new major version. You can find more details at our Product Support Lifecycle Policy page.

Q: Who should I contact if I have questions?
If you have any questions regarding the Support Lifecycle Policy please send an email to support@kentico.com.
 

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Petr Palas

I'm the founder and CEO of Kentico. I write about Kentico, WCM, CXM, digital marketing and related technologies.

Comments

kentico_petrp commented on

Hi Alan,

as you write, we only fix bugs in the latest major or minor version.

In special cases, we do make exceptions and we may fix also bugs in chosen earlier versions if there's an issue that impacts majority of our clients and at the same time can be solved relatively easily.

Still, we always recommend our clients to stay on the latest version so that they can receive all hotfixes and benefit from the latest enhancements.

We invested significant efforts into making the upgrade process as easy as possible with our automatic upgrades in the Kentico Installation Manager and we will continue in that effort so that there's no reason to stay on old versions.

Petr Palas, Kentico

Alan Lim commented on

I understand that Kentico support is available for the latest major version and previous two major versions only, but bugs are only fixed in the latest major or minor version.

If there is any security vulnerabilities uncovered in one of the previous 2 major versions, will Kentico provide patches for this earlier version?